N. / St. Claude Avenue Streetcar Project

Frequently asked questions: April 2014 Why are the proposed alignments in the street as opposed to the neutral ground?

he N. Rampart Street/St. Claude Avenue Streetcar The project team has conducted intensive investigation of Tline is part of the RTA’s streetcar subsurface and above ground existing conditions in order expansion program. The line will run from Elysian Fields to identify the most feasible streetcar design. The existing Avenue connecting to the Canal Streetcar line and Union travel lanes were selected for the following reasons: Passenger Terminal on Loyola Avenue. Streetcars will share the roadway with vehicular traffic in the left travel Insufficient Space - The existing neutral ground is not lane adjacent to the neutral ground. There will be six presently wide enough to accommodate two streetcar streetcar stops along N. Rampart Street and St. Claude tracks. In many places the neutral ground on N. Rampart Avenue. They are located to facilitate improved travel Street is approximately 20 feet wide or less, which is too time and passenger convenience. The stops are placed narrow to accommodate two streetcar tracks along with for consistency with existing and future land use, and the minimum space required for safety clearance between as far apart as possible, the two tracks and a streetcar shelter. Widening the neutral while providing good ground to provide the pedestrian access. The extra space required stops include: would eliminate the ability to provide the current level of traffic lanes in each direction, eliminate • Conti Street the ability to provide • St. Ann Street the proposed bicycle • Ursulines Street lanes, and place the • Esplanade Avenue streetcar tracks on top • Pauger Street of many known utilities – • which would have to be relocated.

ll streetcar shelters Utility Conflicts - Awill be in compliance Significant utilities with the Americans have been identified in with Disabilities Act (ADA). The shelters are designed the neutral ground area running parallel to the proposed to be compatible with our most historic neighborhoods streetcar route. These public and private utilities consist of that they will be serving, including the French Quarter, underground utilities and overhead lines ranging from local the Tremé neighborhood and the telephone and cable television lines, to internet fiber optic neighborhood. The historic streetlights currently located lines, to major natural gas and water pipes, to local electric on N. Rampart (between Canal Street and St. Philip and sewer lines, to AT&T’s nationwide fiber optic trunk line. Street) will also be incorporated into the streetcar line. The streetcar tracks can’t be placed on top of these lines, he construction is expected to be completed in early- since the tracks would prevent future maintenance access, to-mid 2016. and the weight from the tracks and streetcars could damage T the pipes and conduits. Cont’d on back

You’re on your way! www.norta.com N. Rampart Street/ St. Claude Avenue Streetcar Project

April 2014 How will the streetcars affect on-street parking?

Relocating these utilities would be expensive and time Parking lanes will be provided along both sides of the street consuming, and the streetcar project does not have the along the entire route except for a very few locations, where funding available to pay for the relocations. By locating the the operations of the streetcar require a little more space to streetcars in the street, the relocation of many utility lines can make it safe to operate. be avoided. Won’t operations within the street cause significant Potential for Archeological Impacts - The proposed streetcar traffic impacts? route will travel through a very old part of the city, and there is a good possibility that excavation of the neutral ground to A traffic analysis was performed by an independent either build streetcar tracks or relocate utilities would uncover consultant in September 2011 and was reviewed and and/or disturb items of an archeological nature. The project updated in September 2012 for the purpose of identifying schedule and budget simply do not afford the opportunity the effects of placing the streetcar in the traffic lanes on N. to expend the time and cost to recover and safeguard any Rampart Street and St. Claude Avenue. Among the most archeological findings that might be discovered. significant findings of those studies were:

By keeping the tracks in the existing street, which has already • Having a travel lane for the exclusive use of the been disturbed numerous times for roadway and other streetcar for the entire length of the route would create construction, the possibility of uncovering unknown artifacts unacceptable impacts on the level of service (LOS) on the and, therefore, delaying and increasing the cost of the streets; streetcar project, can be minimized. • Having the streetcar share the traffic lanes with vehicular Why not place the streetcar tracks along the curb? traffic would generally have no impact on the LOS at 16 of the 20 intersections along the route; If the tracks were placed along the curbs, all of the parking lanes would have to be removed for the length of the • Of the remaining 4 intersections: route. This could possibly hurt local businesses since their customers wouldn’t be able to park nearby. Additionally it By adding a streetcar, the average time that it takes would also increase the chances that an illegally parked car a vehicle to get through an intersection at three (3) of or truck would prevent the streetcars from getting by. the intersections would increase by less than three (3) seconds. The travel time through the last intersection How will the streetcars operate mixed with vehicular would actually improve by one (1) second. traffic? Won’t this cause more traffic congestion? By placing the streetcars in the inside street lanes, and The streetcars will operate in a designated lane of traffic in realigning the lanes to accommodate both streetcar and essentially the same manner that buses do today, and the vehicular traffic, the design allowed the placement of an same way that streetcars now operate on Loyola Avenue and exclusive lane for bicycle traffic adjacent to the curb lane in North . the up-river directions, and a shared bicycle lane adjacent to the curb lane in the down-river direction.

For more information: www.norta.com • Questions or comments about the project: Mr. Brendan J. Matthews • Chief Maintenance Officer Veolia Transdev • Regional Transit Authority • 2817 Canal Street • , LA 70119 • [email protected]

RTA Board of Commissioners: Salvador G. Longoria, Chairman • Earline Roth, Vice-Chairwoman Flozell Daniels, Jr. • Connie Goodly • Dominick F. Impastato • Barbara Major • Walter Tillery • Sharon Wegner

Justin T. Augustine III • RTA General Manager, Vice President, Veolia Transdev